•Walk to the gym and usual warm-up
•Front squat: 3 sets of (3 x 70kg), 3 x (3 x 80kg). (4 reps of chin-ups b/w sets)
•Supersetted 3 sets of: dB bench press: (10 x 30 kg), with single leg deadlifts (5 x 10 kg)(each leg)
•Supersetted 3 sets of: dB rows (8 x 35kg), with dB hammer curls (10 x 15 kg).
•Finished off with some speed ladder, and supine “no money” band work
notes:
Feeling strong. 80kg for the front squat was heavy, but do-able. I want to make this my new “normal”. Should be able to increase the accessory weights next week.
Right on! Did you play competitively? Right now I can only roll once a week because of school and work, hopefully next semester I’ll have some more time though! Honestly I’m a bit obsessed with Batman, and I wanted to train to “be Batman” for lack of a better word. Big, strong, powerful, stamina and obviously able to fight! Hence the Jits and Thai boxing lol
I have similar goals to yourself. I used to read and occasionally stull do read comics. I would also like to be big, strong and lethal. I would love to learn how to kick as well, but the town I am in doesn’t offer kickboxing, so I do 1 session a week at the local boxing gym to compliment my BJJ, although BJJ is my main focus.
I was thinking the other day, at which level do you feel need to get to reach your goal of been “capable”? I was thinking once you get to brown belt level, you can consider yourself close to “Batman” status, where you could probably take on 99% of the population and win. Agree?
Yep I’d agree on that for sure! Its harder to assign a similar degree of skill to stuff like boxing/K1/Thai I think because there aren’t belt levels, but I’d say once you can spar with an instructor and not get completely destroyed you’d be in a pretty solid place skill-wise.
You should check out “the bioneer” on YouTube man, he’s got some pretty cool videos about how different super heroes would’ve hypothetically trained and he’s also got a couple videos on kicking techniques you could practice by yourself at home!
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up, including banded goblet squat holds.
•Trap bar deadlifts : 6 sets of (3 x 120kg) (weight not including the bar)
•Reverse barbell lunges: aborted after warm-up. Felt my right quad/IT band cramping up.
•Superset 4 sets of : pallof presses (8 x orange band), GHRs 8 reps
•4 rounds of prowler pushes (up and back), with 65kg, 1 minute rest. And then finished off with a bunch of band pull-aparts.
notes:
Incorporated some banded goblet squats holds into my warm-up after seeing the move on twitter. Really warms up the hips. Great move.
I kept the weight the same for the trap bar deadlifts. I should be able to increase this weight by 10kgs next week.
A little disappointed with my right quad issues that has crept up on me again. Im not overly worried about it. I have been a little lazy with my foam rolling, and I think a few sessions on my PVC pipe will fix this issue.
Reduced the weight with the prowler which let me get a little more speed in.
Most likely I will attend BJJ training later tonight.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Bench press: 6 working sets of 6 x (3 x 105kg), supersetted with 5 pull-ups.
•Supersetted 3 sets of: landmine T-bar rows (10x 35kg), with 15 x bodyweight push-ups.
•4 sets of single hand dB overhead press: (3 x 22.5kg), (3 x 25kg), (3 x 27.5kg) & (3 x 30kg)
•Finished off with 3 rounds of shoulder shocker.
notes:
Not the best sleep last night. Not sure why. Busy mind perhaps.
Bench could have been a bit more explosive. I think I just need to keep grinding with these heavier weights as I feel I’m at a sticking point with my bench at the moment. Everything felt good, and should be able to increase weights with the rows for next week.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Back squat to a box: ABORTED during warm-up. Felt my right quad/IT band cramping.
So instead I did 2 supersets:
5 Sets of prowler pushes(up and backs with 50kg), with 4 pull-ups. I also wore the weight vest while doing this (10-15 kgs?)
5 sets of GHRs: 8 reps, with 15 bodyweight feet elevated push-ups
finished off with some banded one handed rows.
notes:
Not surprised that my body “broke down”. It had been a big week at work etc and I was feeling a little tired/run down. Im not too concerned about the right leg IT band issue. Im pretty sure that with a little more foam rolling etc it will be fine.
While I was at the gym, I saw someone doing some hang cleans. That had got me thinking that I would like to incorporate some more explosive movement into my workouts. At the moment Im not sure how I will do this, but I was thinking of maybe adding in some hang cleans once a week, and maybe even some basic plyometric box stuff. Thoughts anyone?
•Walk to the gym and usual warm-up
•Front squat: 6 sets of (3 x 50kg) 5 reps of chin-ups b/w sets)
•Supersetted 3 sets of: dB bench press: (8 x32.5kg kg), with single leg deadlifts (5 x 10 kg)(each leg)
•Supersetted 3 sets of: dB rows (8 x 37.5kg), with dB hammer curls (10 x 15 kg).
•Finished off with some speed ladder, and sprinters low box step-ups.
notes:
Had to reduce the weight of the front squats as my right quad is still feeling a little dodgy. Will need to keep foam rolling on it.
@theBird The O-lifts are awesome! If you’re inclined to add them in I’d say definitely go for it! They also work really well as sort of activation before squats or deads as well. Does your gym have bumper plates?
I have never been too keen on O-lifts, and hence have always kept away from a lot of coach Thibs programming. A lot of the lifts appear too technical for me. I don’t think there is anyone in town that can coach me on them. I also have a history of lower back issues so hence I don’t conventional deadlift and have to be careful with what movements I do.
What O-lifts do you do? How did you learn them? I was thinking of doing hang cleans, and then adding in some depth box jumping, and maybe even some ball slams. I’m assuming to get benefits from these that I don’t have to go heavy?
@theBird
You can definitely learn them on your own with some good YouTube videos, but nothing beats having someone there to coach you. If you’re planning on keeping it light it should be fine to go it alone, but definitely make sure you’ve got the “catch” dialed in so you don’t end up with a broken wrist. (I sprained my wrist about a year ago doing cleans and it still bugs me sometimes. The exercise wasn’t the issue though! My form was) I learned from my high school Rugby coach during our off seasons. I mostly do the “hang/power” variations right now. I’m going off the floor for cleans at the moment though because my college has an Oly team and I’m considering competing next semester!
You’ll definitely see some improvement without needing to stack plates on the bar. But if you keep doing them for long enough you’ll obviously get stronger and might need a bit more weight to keep reaping the benefits. I’d say check out the WS4SB programs to see how DeFranco sets up plyo training, or the neural charge series of vids by CT. I’d say maybe take some videos of yourself doing hang cleans with some light weight and then post it in the Oly forum here, I think the experienced folks over there would be able to critique your form and give you some good advice for improving.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up. Right quad/IT band didn’t feel so good doing some walking lunges so it was here that I decided to omit the barbell lunges.
•Trap bar deadlifts : 6 sets of (3 x 130kg) (weight not including the bar)
•Reverse barbell lunges: aborted. Did 3 sets of 8 reps of bodyweight dips instead.
•Superset 4 sets of : pallof presses (8 x orange band), GHRs 8 reps
•Finished off with some speed ladder and supine “no money” band work.
notes:
A little annoyed that my right quad/IT band has seized/cramped up. I might have to take a 4-5 days off any squatting or lunging (those are the only movements that bother it). Also feeling a couple of twinges here and there and it might be a sign I need more rest or at least to change things up a little.
Trap bar deadlifts were heavy, although my last set was the best out of them all. Need to remind myself to respect the weight and to remember all of my cues. I got a couple lazy on a few reps and my form suffered.
I was going to this program for another 6-8 weeks, but Im feeling that things are getting a little stale. So I may change some exercises around for a week or so, and I will start looking at some new programs. As discussed with @vikingirish above, Im looking something a little more “explosive” this time around.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Bench press: 6 working sets of 6 x (3 x 105kg), supersetted with 5 pull-ups.
•Supersetted 3 sets of: landmine T-bar rows (10x 35kg), with 15 x bodyweight push-ups.
•4 sets of single hand dB overhead press: (3 x 22.5kg), 2 x (3 x 25kg)
•Finished off with some farmer walks.
notes:
Woke up feeling a little tired. So I kept the weights the same as last week. Everything went as expected. Bench was heavy, but I think I just need to keep grinding until it starts to feel lighter.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•As expected my right quad is still not 100% so I did this instead:
6 Sets of prowler pushes(up and backs with 60kg), with 6 pull-ups. I also wore the weight vest while doing this (10-15 kgs?)
5 sets of GHRs: 8 reps, with 15 bodyweight feet elevated push-ups
finished off with some banded one handed rows, sprinter step ups on a low box and some band pull-a-parts.
notes:
Right quad is improving . I might see if I can get my deep tissue practitioner to dig into it today (Monday). No BJJ. Had my work X-mas party in the evening. Ate lots of fried food, although only had 1 beer. I dont mind the occasional beer, but sometimes beer just doesn’t taste good.
•Walk to the gym and usual warm-up
•Supersetted 4 sets of: dB bench press: (10 x 30kg), with single leg deadlifts (5 x 10 kg)(each leg)
•Supersetted 3 sets of: dB rows (10 x 32.5kg), with dB hammer curls (10 x 17.5 kg).
•Finished off with shoulder shocker and thensome speed ladder, and some more stretching
notes:
Omitted the front squats. Yesterday I had visited my deep tissue practitioner who had discovered the origin of my right leg issue. he found a tight spot in my hip causing strain/tension in my lower quadricep when squatting/lunging. Now that I know the cause I can concentrate on trigger pointing the area and doing the appropriate stretchers.
•walked to the gym and the usual warm-up.
•Bench press: 5working sets of (5 x 100kg), supersetted with 5 pull-ups.
•Supersetted 4 sets of: landmine T-bar rows (10x 35kg), with 15 x bodyweight push-ups.
•3 sets of single hand dB overhead press: (4 x 25kg) each arm
•Finished off with some fat pulls using bands
notes:
I have changed the set and rep scheme around with my bench. I have hit a bit of a plateau, so I think changing things up a little. Next week I should be able to increase the weights for the T-bar rows.
